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Belgaroth
Belgaroth is a very powerful Chaos Lord who serves as the main villain and final enemy in the Fighting Fantasy gamebook Knights of Doom. He is a fallen Templar defeated long ago who returns from the Underworld and threatens the kingdom once more, and it is up to a heroic paladin to slay him for good. Belgaroth is notable for being one of the hardest to defeat Fighting Fantasy villains ever seen. Background Over one century before Knights of Doom, Belgaroth was the younger brother of the wise and noble King Chivalras IX. He assisted him in ruling their country of Ruddlestone, located in the continent of the Old World, and was his second in command of the Holy Order of the Templars of Telak, devoted to the God of Courage and Warriors. Yet, Belgaroth was bitter, ambitious and warmongering. He openly criticized his brother's rule, deeming it too lenient and weak, and envied his right to the throne. Belgaroth isolated himself his stronghold of Caer Skaal. He secretly repudiated the ways of Telak and came to worship the Dark Gods (most likely the Demon Princes of Titan), getting corrupted to a point never reached before and turning into a Chaos Lord. He became power-hungry, bloodthirsty, relentless and hateful. He appears regal and imposing, acknowledging his foes' merits, but flying into violent rages when not in control and fleeing cowardly when bested in battle. Belgaroth raised the order of the Knights of Doom and a chaotic army, to take over the kingdom and instate his own tyrannical rule. Fortunately, the king was warned by his spies and was able to make his move before his fallen brother, sparking the dreadful Crusade against Chaos. After months of a grueling war, Chivalras' armies besieged Caer Skaal and managed to destroy the Knights of Doom and their entire forces. Belgaroth himself was slain by Sir Rhyaddan, the legendary Templar who wielded the magic elven spear Aelfgar. Death itself is not enough to lessen the fear caused by Belgaroth's reviled name, and none dares venturing near the ruins of Caer Skaal, considered as cursed. When the gamebook takes place, no Templar of Telak ignores the gloomy tale of the Crusade and its very battlefield remains untouched. Powers and Abilities Belgaroth is a highly talented fighter and strategist, skilled in swordfight, knightly jousts and battle magic. He fights with a blade ornate with the runes of Chaos, which he infused with chaotic energy to cause greater wounds and to corrupt his foes further with each blow. His armour is also infused with chaotic energy and reduces any wound he suffers. All this makes Belgaroth an absolutely deadly foe, against whom only the most skilled and lawful warriors can stand a chance. Belgaroth can also attack by firing dangerous bolts of dark energy. Though not as skilled in sorcery as his wife Morgwyn, Belgaroth is very well versed in Dark Magic. Yet it must be noted that he is more akin to a dark priest than a sorcerer and that his vast power mostly stems from his control over Chaos. He is able to cast spells (mostly based on Spiritual Magic such as the fearsome Assassin's Dagger), to grant special powers to his followers and to infuse his and his generals' weaponry with chaotic energy. Moreover, he can spread chaotic forces to wither the land itself, and to corrupt the heart of people by channelling his power into a rune of Chaos. Belgaroth can also influence the weather and cause thunderstorms, open gates between the different planes of existence, and summon demonic beings, evil spirits and undeads. His foul influence alone is enough to plague the country and to awake evil beings. All chaotic beings will naturally follow him. Belgaroth's Generals Belgaroth always had powerful beings by his side. All those who served him during the Crusade against Chaos were resurrected alongside him as living-deads, but there are also evil beings in the present time who aligned themselves with him. The Chaos Champion The most powerful of the Knights of Doom, who serves as Belgaroth's champion and most likely his right-hand man. The Chaos Champion is a is a very powerful and dangerous warrior, with fighting skills rivalling with that of Belgaroth himself, and an expert rider. Fortunately, he lacks the enchanted weaponry of the other Knights of Doom and their evil lord, which would have made him even harder to defeat than the Dread Lord. The Chaos Champion is a talented and fearless general who never looks twice before dealing with troublemakers personally, as evidenced when he attacks the Templar when they come close to Caer Skaal. The Knights of Doom The other twelve Knights of Doom serve as Belgaroth's first and foremost generals. They are powerful Chaos Knights who were recruited, and possibly corrupted by the Dread Lord before the Crusade against Chaos, and returned as undeads. The Knights of Doom don armours and weapons infused with chaotic energy, which reduce their wounds and can increase the ones they inflict. They never leave Belgaroth's side and serve as his bodyguards, attacking altogether anyone who challenges their wretched master. Given their huge fighting skills, their power and sheer number, no one can defeat them all in a regular battle. Morgwyn Belgaroth's own wife. Morgwyn is a powerful witch who worships the evil Goddess of Sorcery Shekka. She helped her husband to raise his armies by summoning demons and evil spirits. During the siege of Caer Skaal, she called forth spectres to torment the besiegers every night and she fought alongside her husband until the very end. She threw herself from the higest tower of the stronghold when she heard about her husband's demise, but she returned as a spectre when he and his Knights were resurrected. Morgwyn's spectre haunts Caer Skaal and attacks anyone heading towards the throne room. Bryar The Arch-Cleric of the once Holy Order of the Clerics of Lein, worshippers of the forest, who devoted their life in helping the poor and needy. For an unknown reason the Clerics of Lein came to secretly worship Evil. While maintaining a facade of benevolence, Bryar and his clerics are leading a secret plot to destroy the forest of Lein through a vegetal demon called the Darkthorn, whom they worship as their new idol. Their goal is to create a "forest" of thorns that would drain the land's strength, furthering the spreading of Belgaroth's evil influence over Ruddlestone. Murgrim the Cruel One of Belgaroth's present-day vassals, Murgrim is the leader of a powerful tribe of chaotic beastmen settled in the Banarask Hills near Caer Skaal. When Belgaroth returned, he immediately pledged his allegiance to him. Murgrim is an ugly and overweight beastman with bluish grey furr, horns and hoves, who in spite of his size is a very skilled warrior who fights with a great axe. As his his nickname implies, Murgrim is cruel and highly sadistic, and spends his leisure time torturing his prisoners. He and his beastmen captured Celastrix, the divine bird that the player must rescue. The Traitor One of the lords of Ruddlestone, vassal of King Rannor, who secretly pledged allegiance to Belgaroth; the traitor was granted the ability to transform into a raven at will by Belgaroth and uses it to watch over the land and tell everything he learnt to the Dread Lord without raising suspicions. While posing as a noble ruler concerned by his people's safety, he is in fact a greedy and hateful man. He uses his raven transformation to watch the player all over the story and reports their progress to his master on a regular basis. Telling the traitor's name out loud before him while he is transformed breaks the spell and unveils his treachery. Cadaver the Necromage An ancient necromancer (referred to as a necromage) who turned the village of Myrton into a ghost town decades ago. The villagers managed to kill and to bury him, but not before his magic extinguished all life around. Cadaver rose from the grave as an undead lich because of Belgaroth's evil influence and he became one of the Dread Lord's assets. He uses his necromancy to raise countless undeads from the grave and he constantly sends his troops to attack the nearby village of Assart, empowering them with the sound of a cursed bell. In Knights of Doom Belgaroth's return Few months before the beginning of the story, a huge vortex of evil energy appeared over the ruins of Caer Skaal, allowing Belgaroth and his Knights of Doom to escape the Underworld as living-deads. It was spotted by the court mages of Ruddlestone, but no one could know about the return of the Dread Lord, who was protected from detection by demonic entities. Considering all the people who started following him mere weeks after his return, it can be guessed that Belgaroth was brought back on purpose by his present-day followers, likely by the already corrupt Clerics of Lein. Belgaroth spread his evil influence all over Ruddlestone like a fatal disease, which threatens King Rannor's life and weakens the country, leaving it open for Belgaroth to invade it with a much weaker opposition than before, and granting him enough time to raise another chaotic army. He then sent black-clad warriors bearing his heraldry to ransack the nearby towns on a regular basis. Presentation of the game As King Rannor and his advisors tell the Templars of Telak about Belgaroth's return, the meeting is interrupted by a ghostly knight sent to kill the king, who is destroyed by the playable character, Sir Evrain Peredur one of the most illustrious Templars. While the rest of the Holy Order is tasked to organize the Ruddlestonian army, the heroic Templar is sent to kill the Dread Lord before he can strike, in order to avoid a full-scale war. the Templar wield a magic sword that harms demons and spirits, but they might lose it during the course of the game. They can also choose four Special Skills between the Warrior Skills: Battle Tactics, Ride, Weapon, Target and Tracking, and the Priest Skills: Banish Spirit, Arcane Lore, Holy Strike and Commune, the first three of each being the most useful. There are also two additional rules: Time, that must by no means be wasted, and Honour, that need to be raised to the highest possible number. The gamebook itself is very difficult, considering that it is a one-true-path, in which missing even a single element can be very damaging and even cause a game over. the Templar will have to talk to almost everyone (living and dead people alike); to visit many places and succeed in many sub-quests, while wasting as little time as possible. Moreover, they must gather knowledge and items, solve complicated riddles and win many very hard battles. The stronger they are the better. The Quest in itself There are three distinct goals: to investigate on the many powerful monsters who appeared because of Belgaroth's influence; to gather clues about a traitor; to enlist the help of as many people as possible to fight Belgaroth's forces; and finally to learn the three parts of the "Tale of Sir Rhyaddan" to know where to find the magical, elven spear Aelfgar, the very weapon that felled Belgaroth and an ace against him. Very early in the game, the Templar is targeted by the Assassin's Dagger: a powerful spell cast by the Dread Lord himself, which conjures a ghostly hand wielding a dagger that tracks down its target everywhere. If they can use the Banish Spirit, it gets rid of one of the game's major threats right from the beginning. Otherwise, the Dagger will attack them several times over the game. It has a level of power of 10 skill points, making it a powerful enemy, and cannot be destroyed in battle. Only the Holy Oil can dispel it and it must be disposed of it at any cost. Upon reaching Cleeve Manor, Lord Taris Varen requests the Templar's help to slay a gigantic boar who is laying waste on his land. After it is done, they will be attacked by assassins. Also, but only if they have gathered clues about the mysterious activities of the Clerics of Lein, they can sneak into their temple. Bryar the Arch-Cleric summons the Darkthorn, who shrugs off anything thrown at it and can only be destroyed with a Witherwell potion. the Templar must then track down Bryar, and might fight one of his initiates while escaping the collapsing temple. *Without a cleric talisman, Bryar conjures vines that impede the Templar and decrease their skill by 2 points. The Arch-Cleric is a dangerous enemy with 9 in skill (power) and 9 in stamina (life-points). When slain, he curses them to suffer a specific phobia. Upon reaching the village of Assart, the villagers ask the Templar for help against the undeads of the necromage Cadaver. They must lead the villagers against the undead hordes, before venturing in the ghost-village of Myrton. If they destroy the cursed bell in the village's church, it weakens the undeads. In Cadaver's vault, the wretched Necromage sends his pet Deathshead, an undead flying skull with 9 in skill and 7 in stamina, after the Templar. *Cadaver is a powerful enemy with 10 in skill and 12 in stamina. If the Templar suffer from arachnophobia, the lich's spider-like aspect weakens them by 1 skill point. If Cadaver strikes them twice in a row, they get harmed further by the maggots festering on the lich's rotten flesh. the Templar can also save the town of Carras, besieged by Belgaroth's troops who use a dangerous war machine called the Juggernaut, which must be destroyed from the inside. After all this, they must look for the legendary spear Aelfgar. By doing so, they meet their best friend and fellow Templar Sir Connor of Achenbury, mortally wounded by orcs, who warns them about the beastmen and the divine bird Celastrix before expiring. Then, they meet forest elves and must convince the Forest Spirits of their worth, before fighting a very powerful Knight of the Flame with 12 in skill (the highest total) and 12 in stamina, whose blows cost 3 stamina points instead of the regular 2. In the temple, they will face several divine trials to finally obtain Aelfgar. If the quest lasted more than six days, Belgaroth has had enough time to gather his armies and starts his invasion of Ruddlestone, overwhelming and killing the Templar. If not, and they gathered enough soldiers near Banarask Hills, their troops will fight Belgaroth's hordes of beastmen. It must be noted that the soldiers granted by Lord Taris Varen betray the Templar to fight alongside the enemy, and that they might face the very powerful Beastman Champion, who has 12 in skill and 14 in stamina and whose blows cost 3 stamina points. Then they will have to flee when the beastmen's reinforcements enter the fray. The next task is to sneak into the beastmen village to fight and kill their awful leader, Murgrim the Cruel. *Murgrim is a powerful foe with 10 in skill and 11 in stamina, but there are no special rules to complicate the fight. With Murgrim slain, the Templar frees the divine bird Celastrix and enlist his help, before heading to Caer Skaal at last. Caer Skaal Before reaching Caer Skaal, the Templar is attacked on the battlefield of the Crusade against Chaos by none other than the formidable Chaos Champion. *The Chaos Champion is fought on horseback in a knightly joust. the Templar needs the Special Skills Ride and Weapon (with a spear), for each missing Skill hinders them by 1 skill point. The Chaos Champion has 12 in skill and 12 in stamina. If he strikes them twice, he unhorses them and they lose 4 stamina points and 2 skill points for the battle, causing a dire disadvantage. However, if they have a spear and if they are the first to strike twice, it is the Chaos Champion who gets unhorsed, granting a bonus of 2 skill points that makes the battle easier. Upon defeating the champion, the Templar finally reach Caer Skaal, which is being rebuilt by Belgaroth's followers. Entering the evil hideout by the front door is very dangerous. When inside, there are many dangerous monsters and many guards that must by no mean be alerted. They must discover the Five Words of Power, an incantation devised to destroy Chaos by Savant (Belgaroth's court mage before his downfall), and get in contact with the ghost of Sir Connor to learn the final clue about "The Raven", the mysterious traitor. Then the last line of defence between the Templar of Telak and the Knights of Doom is the spectre of Morgwyn. *If the Templar lacks a magic weapon, the game is lost. Should they use the Banish Spirit, the witch counters it and retaliates with a bolt of dark energy costing 4 stamina points. Morgwyn is a dangerous foe with 9 in skill and 9 in stamina. If she wins the first turn, she hurls a dark bolt (minus 4 in stamina), if she wins the second, she conjures evil spirits (minus 6 in stamina), and after that she fights with her ghostly touch. (If she strikes the Templar with it, she causes a loss of 1 skill point five in six times.) At last, the Templar gets close to Belgaroth's throne room. The HARDEST part of the game is now about to unfold. The final battle *Before even entering the Dread Lord's inner sanctum, the tree sap from the Forest of Lein is mandatory to destroy the enchanted wooden doors of the throne room, or else the noise made when trying to pry them open will alert the guards, who will kill the Templar on sight. *In the throne room, the Templar finally faces Belgaroth and his Knights of Doom, with the Dread Lord talking to a raven (the traitor transformed). If they know the Five Words of Power (and survive the deadly forces they unleash) they stand a chance against the Knights. Otherwise, they get quickly slaughtered. *The Words of Power will kill six to eleven (maybe twelve with the Holy Strike) Knights of Doom. Each surviving Knight must be destroyed in battle. They are all powerful and very dangerous foes with 10 in skill and 12 in stamina, who lose only 1 stamina point when struck and whose blows can cost 3 stamina points! The more Knights are slain by the Words of Power the better, since the Templar needs as many stamina points as possible for the incoming showdown against Belgaroth. *Belgaroth uses the power of Chaos to corrupt the Templar, forcing them to win a difficult test of honour to overcome it. The higher their honour score, the less dangerous it is. A failure corrupts them and transforms them into one of Belgaroth's Chaos Knights, leading to a gloomy game over. *Belgaroth hurls a bolt of dark energy that cannot be avoided and costs 5 stamina points. Using the Holy Strike means losing only 2 in stamina, but a Black Crystal Orb, it amplifies the Dread Lord's dark power and the Templar gets blasted to ashes. If they still have a healing potion, it is best to drink it now. *Finally, they can fight the Dread Lord, who true to his title is a formidable foe. Belgaroth has 12 in skill and 17 in stamina; he loses only 1 stamina point when wounded and his blows cost 3 stamina point and 1 honour point, no less! Losing all honour points turns them into a Chaos Knight and sealing their fate. They need high skill, stamina and honour scores to stand a chance, but this is easier said than done. Fortunately, the battle stops when Belgaroth's stamina drops to 7 or less. Unfortunately, this is FAR from over yet! *If the Assassin's Dagger was not destroyed, it will strike the Templar from behind during the battle and put a gruesome end to their quest. *As the Templar is gaining the upper-hand, the raven flies away to warn Belgaroth's guards. Not having heard of him nor having guessed his name means they get overwhelmed and Belgaroth himself lands the finishing blow. *Saying the traitor's name out loud breaks his transformation and unmasks him. He is none other than Lord Taris Varen. (Varen=Raven, he sent assassins after the Templar and his soldiers joined the enemy's side.) Now reduced to an awfully deformed half-raven half-human mutant, he attacks the Templar out of rage. Such a state greatly weakens him, leaving him with only 7 in skill and 8 in stamina, but the fight allows Belgaroth to flee. * After killing the traitor, the Templar runs after Belgaroth on the battlements of Caer Skaal. The Dread Lord summons his Night-Mare (a demonic, winged steed) and sends it after them. The powerful monster has 10 in skill and 11 in stamina, but fortunately there is no additional rule and the battle stops when its stamina drops to 6 or less. *Belgaroth calls back the Night-Mare and flies away towards his armies, leaving the Templar to deal with his guards. If they cannot summon the Celastrix, they are killed and Ruddlestone gets invaded. *Upon summoning the Celastrix, they must ride the divine bird to catch up with the Dread Lord and settle their score once and for all. Because of the storm that Belgaroth caused, they must win a test of skill or fall from their mount to their death. *Belgaroth is forced into an aerial duel and hurls a bolt of dark energy. Without the spear Aelfgar, the Templar gets struck and fall to their death. *With Aelfgar, they must test their skill to throw it and successfully strike Belgaroth. Otherwise, the Dread Lord's dark bolt strikes them and sends them plummeting to their death. FINALLY, the Templar of Telak slays Belgaroth once and for all, sending him back to The Realms of the Damned with his entire forces, cleansing Ruddlestone of his chaotic blight. They now receive the blessing of the ghost of Chivalras IX, marking the gratifying end of one of the hardest quests of the Fighting Fantasy series. Trivia *Belgaroth is mistakenly referred to as a wizard in the backcover of the gamebook, despite being a Chaos Lord. *Belgaroth and Razaak are very similar Fighting Fantasy final enemies: both are undoubtedly the hardest ever seen, both need an insane amount of knowledge and special items or spells to be faced safely (with an item that can spell the Templar's doom), and both are formidable foes with special rules that makes them close to invincible. Belgaroth is less hard in one-on-one battle though. But in turn, the Templar must win many very, very tough battles and needs the aforementioned knowledge and items before and after fighting him. *Belgaroth is also similar to two other Fighting Fantasy villains: Voivod the Waster and Mortis of Balthor, who are also powerful Dark Knights and Evils from the past, who need a magical spear to be defeated. The similarities with Voivod are stronger, as both are demonic Chaos Lords who control a formidable team of Dark Knights, and whose return triggers the appearance of many monsters. *Oddly enough, Belgaroth shares his name with a planet of the Star Wars extended universe. *Belgaroth's page on Titannica, the Fighting Fantasy Wiki: http://fightingfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Belgaroth. Category:Undead Category:Tyrants Category:Dark Knights Category:Fantasy Villains Category:Gamebooks Villains Category:Male Category:Aristocrats Category:Spouses Category:Envious Category:Traitor Category:Evil from the Past Category:Revived Category:Leader Category:Monster Master Category:Magic Category:Corrupting Influence Category:Power Hungry Category:Damned Souls Category:Mongers Category:Homicidal Category:Warlords